[UPDATED] Tobago party hits budget: 'Punishment, neglect, manipulation'

“PUNISHMENT, neglect and manipulation,” was how Innovative Democratic Alliance (IDA) political leader Dr Denise Tsoiafatt Angus summed up the $59b budget for fiscal 2024/2025.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the budget in the House of Representatives on September 30.

Responding to the package on the Tobago Updates morning show on October 2, Tsoiafatt Angus knocked the decision to increase by $2, the minimum wage for daily-rated public-sector workers alone. Their wage is set to increase from $20.50 per hour to $22.50 per hour. She said private-sector workers should have also been given an increase.

Tsoiafatt Angus claimed although Tobago got an increase in its recurrent expenditure budget – $2.376 billion – “those additional resources are not to hire anybody.

“Those additional resources are to satisfy the increase in the $2 that they gave to public servants. So you may think it is an additional resource that the THA is getting, but it’s not. It is just to satisfy that increase that was given to the public-sector workers and not private-sector workers.”

She asked, “How do you give an increase to public-sector workers and there is nothing for private-sector workers? It just does not add up. It is either you do something for all or nothing.”

Tsoiafatt-Angus regarded the move as “quite discriminatory and manipulative.

“We know an election is coming up so they are attempting to speak to the public-sector workers and starve the rest of Tobago.

But those public-sector workers have families who are in the private sector, so it will come back to bite them.”

She said many private-sector workers may now want to find jobs in the public sector.

“So you are decreasing the morale of the people in the private sector to maybe want to go and search for a public-sector job, because it is perceived that that is where the increases will come.”

Tsoiafatt Angus believes this will create a culture of dependency.

“It is unfortunate that that seems to be what the government wants to do, to keep us in a dependency state and not see the people of Tobago evolve to be contributors to the national budget.”

The $95 million cut in Tobago’s development budget, she believes, amplifies her claim.

“Your development budget is there to create vehicles for returns on investment, but they have cut the THA’s budget by $95 million this year. Last year, they got $300 million and this year, $205 million. That is a significant cut. Nobody is talking about that.”

Tsoiafatt Angus also knocked the decision to give $678 million to ministries to spend on projects in Tobago.

“Why do you have a Tobago House of Assembly if you are giving $678 million to your ministries to spend and you have $205 million (for development)? You are not serious about really allowing Tobago to develop.”

On the other hand, she said, the THA has not been able to show what it has done with the funds.

Tsoiafatt Angus claimed Tobagonians have mixed feelings about the $2.599 billion allocation.

“While they are upset on one hand that the government has not treated Tobago any better, on the other hand they are saying they could understand because of how this administration has managed the funds.”

She also said the THA does not have a good relationship with central government.

“They maybe have a forced relationship now, because of the amount of crime that we have had. Let’s be honest. There has been no relationship, and I am sure that there were many things being done in Tobago that the THA knows absolutely nothing about.”

Tsoiafatt Angus said the decision to spend $57 million on the Magdalena Grand Beach & Golf Resort is a case in point.

“The mere fact that you intend to spend $57 million on the Magdalena, and then later on in the budget, you say you either going to lease it or sell it – why are you spending $57 million to then turn around and sell it?

“So they need to make a decision. If the government does not have money, then just sell the thing outright, make a little money from whatever is there and allow private investors to come in and treat with the situation.”